Busy Easter for Canterbury Academics Part 2!

Dr. Amelia Hadfield was also extremely busy over the break, here are her reports from her activities.

Paris Diderot (31st March) : Development Policy and the Commonwealth

This conference examined the role, nature and efficacy of the Commonwealth, from a variety of inter-disciplinary perspectives. Entitled ‘A Commonwealth Approach to Development? Theory, Networks and Outcomes’ this one-day conference was organized and led by Dr Melanie Torrent (Paris Diderot) in Diderot’s new campus on 31st March 2014. Drawing academics from across Europe and Britain, with the support of LARCA (Laboratoire de Recherches sur les Cultures Anglophones), SAGE (Sociétés Acteurs Gouvernement en Europe), and publishers Taylor & Francis, the conference examined a variety of political, economic and cultural ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ that have helped to render the Commonwealth as a multifaceted development actor. Dr Amelia Hadfield (Canterbury Christ Church University) presented a paper entitled ‘Re-assessing British influence: development practices in the Commonwealth and the EU’, which provided a comparative look at the expansion of development policy undertaken by the Commonwealth, the degree of ‘soft power’ intrinsic in this approach, the various leading roles played by Britain in supporting the Commonwealth’s overly-discreet quest to become a normative power, and the surprising series of missed opportunities between the Commonwealth and the EU in constructing efficacious development policy.